The present invention relates to an improved glass break repair apparatus and method.
Glass breaks or cracks, such as in automobile windshields, or even plate glass, mar the visibility through the glass, but oftentimes do not affect the usability of the glass. In many instances, such breaks or cracks themselves can be repaired, substantially restoring the visibility through the glass, obviating very expensive and time-consuming replacement of the entire glass which includes the break or crack.
One of the problems in glass breaks or cracks is that the rough edges of the area and the crack striations refract light in patterns different from the normal refraction of the glass, impeding or destroying the normal visibility of the glass.
The problems of glass breaks are substantially the same in automobile windshields or plate glass insofar as visibility is concerned. The main difference between a windshield and plate glass is that a windshield or other automobile glass is made of safety glass.
Safety glass is usually a lamination of two plates of glass sandwiching a transparent binder, a crack in a windshield usually only affects the outer plate of the lamination and does not go through the entire lamination.
A crack in the plate glass differs primarily in that it goes through the entire plate, since there is not lamination.
It has been found that glass breaks can be filled with transparent resins which protect the formerly broken areas and which substantially restore the visibility to the repaired area. Such repair has required complicated mounting devices, complicated pumps for drawing air and creating pressure and other expensive equipment. The equipment was also so complicated that only experienced operators could use such equipment.
Notwithstanding equipment of the past and professional repairs, oftentimes striations of somewhat irregular cracks were unable to be properly repaired because of the difficulty of getting the resin to penetrate the striations of the crack.
Devices of the past required complex and expensive heat applications, ultra sound, pressure to place the devices or vacuum mounted jigs to position repair apparatus, among other things.
In the past, an improved system included a simple pedestal mountable over a break. The pedestal received a syringe which was sealed to the pedestal and was used to fill the crack with transparent resin. Where the break was through the entire thickness of the glass, particularly with plate glass, it was necessary to seal the other side of the glass in order to get proper resin penetration. In the past, the simplicity of the use of a syringe with a pedestal and its efficiency for pumping and drawing was a great advance in the technology.
The flange on the pedestal served as an effective interface between the seal and the glass with the break.
The present invention includes the use of a three-way valve with a syringe in the pumping system, instead of the prior art pin valve used in conjunction with a syringe. The syringe now is an unexpectedly more effective vacuum accumulating tool instead of a one-shot pump. Now one can continue to draw vacuum and hold it with the new valve configuration. To some extent pressure may also be able to be accumulated. One can draw vacuum, vent the syringe, hold the vacuum, then close the syringe, draw more vacuum and vent the syringe. This give greater flexibility over what has been available before, using a simple syringe. The present invention uses a simpler mechanism for effectively drawing vacuum and to some extent, accumulating pressure.
The accumulation of pressure can be effected, but is more difficult, since the resetting of the valve for additional pressure strokes allows some back pressure release into the when the plunger is withdrawn.